MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazilian trade minister and 53 companies on African business round

Minister for Industry and Foreign Trade Pimentel heads the mission

A business mission of 53 companies organised by the Brazilian government plans to begin a tour of Mozambique, Angola and South Africa on 21 November, an Apex-Brasil official said in Sao Paulo.

Ricardo Santana, Image and Market Access coordinator for the Brazilian Agency For Export and Investment Promotion (Apex-Brasil), told Portuguese news agency Lusa that the mission would be in Mozambique on 21 and 22 November and from 23 to 25 in Angola and after a free weekend would head on to South Africa from 28 to 30 November.

The companies mainly represent the food, construction and machinery sectors and the mission will be headed up by the Minister for Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Fernando Pimentel.

As well as looking for buyers for their products the Brazilian companies may also do deals, Santana said, who gave the possibility of partnerships with African representatives, agents and distributors as an example.

In related news the Foreign Policy magazine reports that Angola and Mozambique rank amongst the biggest growing economies over the last decade but, whilst the Angolan economy has grown because of oil, the Mozambican economy has experienced more diverse growth, according to Foreign Policy magazine.

Cross referencing information from the World Bank and the US State Department, the magazine ranked Angola in fourth place amongst the group of economies that managed to double their size over the last decade.

Led by Equatorial Guinea, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, this group includes economies that are, “highly dependent on the extractive industries,” according to the US magazine.

In Angola’s case, oil production has risen continually since the end of the civil war in 2002 and revenues have also expanded due to record oil prices in the middle of the decade.

This year oil production is expected to total 1.65 million barrels per day and according to the latest projections from the Economist Intelligence Unit production will grow continuously over the next few years, from 1.88 million barrels per day in 2012 to 2.147 million in 2016.

Revenues from oil sales have made it possible for the country to become a huge work site for the reconstruction of roads, railways, houses, ports, airports and even stadiums, such as those for the recent Africa Cup of Nations.

Angola managed to reach two-digit economic growth in practically half the decade, with a record in 2007 (22.7% according to World Bank figures).

Mozambique only managed to achieve two-digit growth in 2011 (11.9%), but has maintained a constant rate of growth of between 6 and 9%.

In Mozambique’s case, growth has been bolstered by large industrial projects such as the Mozal aluminium foundry on the outskirts of Maputo.

But services, particularly tourism and construction, have also allowed the country to have a diversified growth base. More recently large mining projects have appeared across the country for coal and gold, the first of which recently started exporting its production – the Moatize mine owned by Brazilian company Vale Doce.